Northern Counties Chess Union

Established 1899

A constituent unit of the English Chess Federation

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Pennine Cup - U-16 County Team Championship

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History

Gary Kenworthy, then of Bradford, set up the competition for county teams of players aged under 16 years, then donated The Pennine Cup is for presentation each season. The competition was first held in 1999 (when Yorkshire finished 3rd per YCA minutes) and thereafter each season to 2009-10 inclusive, but then only four times in the next nine seasons, and so is in need of revitalising. Northumberland won the trophy in 2018-19.  There was an organiser had a plan to hold it in 2020-21, but Covid got in the way.

Teams are traditionally invited from the following counties: Yorkshire, Lancashire, Merseyside, Durham, Northumberland, Cumbria, Cheshire & N. Wales, and Cleveland, but has been recently contested by only Yorkshire, Lancashire, Northumberland and Cumbria.

It has been held at different venues in the past, by people including Gary Kenworthy who was long resident down south but now lives in south Cumbria, Paul Bielby from Sunderland, Sid Cassidy from Cumbria, Alan Coupe from Rotherham and Tim Wall of Northumberland.

It was originally held around February to April, but became more usually held around November to December, on either a Saturday or a Sunday. It is played between teams of at least 6 girls and boys.

There is an opportunity for some good coaching given and for organisers to meet and exchange useful information. The aim of the event is to stimulate junior chess in the North particularly for those over age 11.

Sources of information on past Pennine Cup events are disparate, piecemeal and sketchy, and the following is a skeleton which might have more flesh added in time.

Year	Date	Venue	Winners	Others Participating	Organiser
1998‑99	?	?	? (Yorkshire 3rd)	?	Gary Kenworthy
1999-00	09/12/2000		?	?	Gary Kenworthy
2000-01	02/12/2001		?	?	Bill ORourke
2001-02	Jun 2002	Yorkshire	Lancashire	?	Ihor Lewyk
2002-03	Nov 2002	Lancashire	Lancashire	?
2003-04	28/02/2004	Darlington	Lancashire	?
2004-05	27/11/2004	Durham	Lancashire	?
2005-06	04/12/2005	Atherton	Lancashire	?
2006-07	16/12/2006	Frodsham	Cheshire & N Wales	?
2007-08	15/12/2007	Frodsham	Cheshire & N Wales (See details here)	Northumberland	Judy L Brown
2008-09	07/12/2008	Frodsham	Cheshire & N Wales	Oldham (Lancs.)	Judy L Brown
2009-10	12/12/2009	Ponteland	Northumberland	Cumbria	Paul Bielby
2010-11	no event
2011-12	03/12/2011	Newcastle‑upon‑Tyne	Cumbria	1 Cumbria 20½ pts 2 Northumberland 19 3 Merseyside 14½ *	Paul Bielby
2012-13	14/03/2013	Bradford	Yorkshire	Lancashire Cheshire & N Wales Manchester A Yorkshire B Northumberland Merseyside Yorkshire C Manchester B	Andy Wright
2013-14	no event
2014-15	no event
2015-16	17/03/2016	Newcastle‑upon‑Tyne	Northumberland (See details here.)	Cumbria (only 2 teams)	Paul Bielby
2016-17	no event
2017-18	no event
2018-19	06/10/2018	York	Northumberland	Yorks. (only 2 teams)	Peter Cloudsdale
2019-20	no event
2020-21	cancelled				(Ben Rich)

* Merseyside set out at 6.30 for an 11.00 start in Newcastle-upon-Tyne!